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E-Government
Definitions Australia E-government (electronic government) is OECD E-government (electronic government) is United Nations E-government (electronic government) is United States E-government (electronic government) is Overview E-government E-government — which has diverse constituencies that include citizens and other individuals; businesses; nonprofit organizations; and the many federal, state, and local agencies — is envisioned as providing some of the following key benefits: * More accessible government information; * Faster, smoother transactions with government agencies; * Enhanced ubiquity of access to information and transactions; * Greater effectiveness in meeting the needs of specific groups of users; * Increased participation in government by all people, fostering a more informed and engaged citizenry; * Greater ability to meet expectations for advances in government-unique areas, including challenges in the newly emerging homeland security mission; and * More efficient internal government operations. There are three main phases of e-government strategy and activity. They encapsulate the main focus of e-government on the one hand, and the major challenges facing public sector leaders and all stakeholders in pursuing e-government on the other hand. The three (interrelated and often overlapping) phases are: * Infrastructure: Creating an information infrastructure both within the public sector and across society at large, one based upon reliable and affordable Internet connectivity for citizens, businesses and all stakeholders in a given jurisdiction; * Integration: Leveraging this new infrastructure within the public sector in order to better share information (internally and externally) and bundle, integrate, and deliver services through more efficient and citizen-centric governance models encompassing multiple delivery channels; and * Transformation: Pursuing service innovation and e-government across a broader prism of community and democratic development through more networked governance patterns within government, across various government levels and amongst all sectors in a particular jurisdiction. European Union eGovernment is a key vehicle for the implementation and achievement of higher policy objectives. It is unlikely that European policy objectives on, for example, the single market freedoms, industrial policy, sustainable development and security across Europe, can be achieved unless interoperable eGovernment services are swiftly implemented. eGovernment is built on two main but inter-related developments. The first is the business models adopted in the recent past by the enterprise sector. These are largely concerned with obtaining competitive advantage by activities such as continuous process improvement, a focus on core competencies and the re-organization of their internal processes. The second is the use of a wide range of information and communication technologies (ICTs), of which the Internet is the most visible, in supporting organizational change, more productive ways of working and the improved provision of information and interactive services to customers. "This combination of the use of advanced ICTs, especially the Internet, in the support of new ways of working in public administration, together with the enhanced provision of information and interactive services accessible over different channels, is the foundation of eGovernment. The challenge here is to 're-write the rules' for how public administration works internally, interacts with its customers, and uses ICTs, not only to increase productivity by making business transactions easier to carry out, but also to address issues of social inclusion and the digital divide. For this to happen, not only should technology ensure the communication and sharing of information, but also administrative processes should be reorganized and be able to co-operate.Id. United States As initially used in American public recourse, the term "e-government" (an abbreviation for "electronic government") was little more than a general recognition of a confluence of information technology (IT) developments and the application and use of these technologies by government entities. Subsequently, it has often been used as a symbol, an ambiguous reference to both current applications of IT to government operations and a goal of realizing more efficient and economical performance of government functions. The conditions contributing to the e-government phenomenon were recognized at least three decades ago. Observations offered by the authors of a report of the Commission on the Year 2000 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences are informative in this regard. Concerning the executive branch, the report proferred: Such observations, however, should not obscure recognition that new information technologies have affected government operations in the past, as the following comment, penned in 1910, attests: The author, a respected Canadian editor and writer, also presciently noted that, "next to public officials, bankers were perhaps the last to accept the facilities of the telephone," because "they were slow to abandon the fallacy that no business can be done without a written record."Id. at 203. Subscription to such a "fallacy" constitutes a basis for the concerns of some regarding the paperless transactions of e-government. E-government is a dynamic concept, meaning different things to different people. However, it has significant relevance to four important areas of governance: (1) delivery of services (government-to-citizen, or G2C); (2) providing information (also G2C); (3) facilitating the procurement of goods and services (government-to-business, or G2B, and business-to-government, or B2G); and (4) facilitating efficient exchanges within and between agencies (government-to-government, or G2G). For policymakers concerned about e-government, a central area of concern is developing a comprehensive but flexible strategy to coordinate the disparate e-government initiatives across the federal government. The movement to put government online raises as many issues as it provides new opportunities. Some of these issues include, but are not limited to: security, privacy, management of governmental technology resources, accessibility of government services (including “digital divide” concerns as a result of a lack of skills or access to computers), and preservation of public information (maintaining comparable freedom of information procedures for digital documents as exist for paper documents). Although these issues are neither new nor unique to e-government, they do present the challenge of performing governance functions online without sacrificing the accountability of, or public access to, government that citizens have grown to expect. Some industry groups have also raised concerns about the U.S. government becoming a publicly funded market competitor through the provision of fee-for-services such as the U.S. Postal Service’s now-discontinued eBillPay service, which allowed consumers to schedule and make payments to creditors online.http://www.usps.com/paymentservices/ops_discontinued.htm Early U.S. government initiatives E-government initiatives vary significantly in their breadth and depth from state to state and agency to agency. Perhaps one of the most well-known federal examples is the FirstGov website,http://www.firstgov.gov which first went online on September 22, 2000. FirstGov is a web portal designed to serve as a single locus point for finding federal government information on the Internet. The FirstGov site also provides access to a variety of state and local government resources. Another example is the Grants.gov initiative, which is designed to provide a single portal for all available federal grants, enabling users to search, download applications, and apply for grants online. At the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) administers the Free File initiative, which has partnered with industry to provide free online tax preparation and electronic filing services for eligible taxpayers. E-Government Task Force Pursuant to the July 18, 2001, OMB Memorandum M-01-28, an E-Government Task Force was established to create a strategy for achieving the Bush Administration’s e-government goals.http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/egovstrategy.pdf In doing so, the Task Force identified 23 interagency initiatives designed to better integrate agency operations and information technology investments. These initiatives, sometimes referred to as the Quicksilver projects, are grouped into four categories; government-to-citizen, government-to-government, government-to-business, and internal effectiveness and efficiency. Examples of these initiatives include an e-authentication project led by the General Services Administration (GSA) to increase the use of digital signatures, the eligibility assistance online project (also referred to as GovBenefits.gov) led by the Department of Labor to create a common access point for information regarding government benefits available to citizens, and the Small Business Administration’s One-Stop Business Compliance project, being designed to help businesses navigate legal and regulatory requirements. A 24th initiative, a government wide payroll process project, was subsequently added by the President’s Management Council. In 2002 the e-Clearance initiative, originally included as part of the Enterprise Human Resources Integration project, was established as a separate project, for a total of 25 initiatives. Since that time, the Bush Administration has reclassified the e-Authentication initiative as “a separate initiative that provides secure and robust authentication services to the 24 initiatives,” bringing the official tally again to 24 initiatives.http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/c-presidential.html As the initial round of e-government projects continue to develop and become fully operational, OMB has focused attention on initiatives that consolidate information technology systems in nine functional areas, or Lines of Business (LoB). These include financial management, human resource management, grants management, case management, federal health architecture, information security, budget formulation and evaluation, geospatial systems, and information technology infrastructure. These initiatives were chosen, in part, because they represent core business functions common to many departments and agencies, and/or have the potential to reap significant efficiency and efficacy gains. These LoB initiatives are anticipated to create $5 billion in savings over 10 years. E-Government Act of 2002 On December 17, 2002, President Bush signed the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L. No. 107-347) into law. The law contains a variety of provisions related to federal government information technology management, information security, and the provision of services and information electronically. One of the most recognized provisions involves the creation of an Office of Electronic Government within OMB. The Office is headed by an Administrator, who is responsible for carrying out a variety of information resources management (IRM) functions, as well as administering the interagency E-Government Fund provided for by the law. As defined in the Act, "e-government" refers to the use of information technology, including web-based Internet applications, to deliver government information and services to the public, federal agencies, and other governmental entities.116 Stat. 2809, 2902. Legal and structural issues A complication special to the government setting is that integration is fraught with legal and structural challenges. Legal constraints can significantly inhibit rapid, wholesale structural changes in government structures (at both inter- and intra-agency levels). For example, legal and regulatory barriers to sharing information have been established to protect citizen privacy. At the same time, the stove-piped appropriations process — in which agencies compete for resources and appropriations that are determined by separate congressional committees — makes cross-agency collaboration to build more integrated systems very difficult. Explicit authorization and resources to undertake cross-agency efforts is an important element of a solution. Also, as noted above, governments differ from businesses in their inherently comprehensive scope. Finally, the desired span of aggregation can include state and local governments as well as federal agencies. References Sources * "Overview" section: E-Government Survey 2008: From e-Government to Connected Governance, at xvi. * "Overview" section: Information Technology Research, Innovation, and E-Government, at 3. * "Legal and structural issues" section: Id. at 6. See also * Agency for the Development of e-Administration (France) * Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People * E-Governance Academy * E-Government Act of 2002 * E-government-as-a-whole * E-Government and Information Technology Office * E-Government Fund * E-government interoperability * E-Government Interoperability Framework * E-Government Interoperability: Guide * E-Government Interoperability: Overview * E-Government Strategy * E-Government Survey 2008: From e-Government to Connected Governance * E-Government Unit (U.K.) * Electronic Government - Information Technologies and the Citizen * European Interoperability Framework of Pan-European E-Government Services * Global E-Government Survey 2003 * Office of Electronic Government (U.S.) * OMB Memorandum M-03-22: OMB Guidance for Implementing the Privacy Provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002 * On-Line Rulemaking Management E-Government initiative * President's Management Agenda's Expanding Electronic Government initiative * Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government * Section 213 of the E-Government Act Report to Congress: Organizations Complementing Federal Agency Information Dissemination Programs Category:Government agency Category:EU Category:Legislation-U.S.-Federal Category:E-government